n the one condition, that Mataafa be excluded. "_Pourvu qu'il
sache signer_!"--an official is said to have thus summed up the
qualifications necessary in a Samoan king. And it was perhaps feared
that Mataafa could do no more and might not always do so much. But this
original diffidence was heightened by late events to something verging
upon animosity. Fangalii was unavenged: the arms of Mataafa were

_Nondum inexpiatis uncta cruoribus_,
Still soiled with the unexpiated blood

of German sailors; and though the chief was not present in the field,
nor could have heard of the affair till it was over, he had reaped from
it credit with his countrymen and dislike from the Germans.

I may not say that trouble was hoped. I must say--if it were not feared,
the practice of diplomacy must teach a very hopeful view of human
nature. Mataafa and Laupepa, by the sudden repatriation of the last,
found themselves face to face in conditions of exasperating rivalry. The
one returned from the dead of exile to find himself replaced and
excelled. The other, at the end of a long, anxious, and successful
struggle, beheld his only possible competitor resuscitated from the
grave. The qualities of both, in this difficult moment, shone out nobly.
I feel I seem always less than partial to the lovable Laupepa; his
virtues are perhaps not those which chiefly please me, and are certainly
not royal; but he found on his return an opportunity to display the
admirable sweetness of his nature. The two entered into a competition of
generosity, for which I can recall no parallel in history, each waiving
the throne for himself, each pressing it upon his rival; and they
embraced at last a compromise the terms of which seem to have been
always obscure and are now disputed. Laupepa at least resumed his style
of King of Samoa; Mataafa retained much of the conduct of affairs, and
continued to receive much of the attendance and respect befitting
royalty; and the two Malietoas, with so many causes of disunion, dwelt
and met together in the same town like kinsmen. It was so, that I first
saw them; so, in a house set about with sentries--for there was still a
haunting fear of Germany,--that I heard them relate their various
experience in the past; heard Laupepa tell with touching candour of the
sorrows of his exile, and Mataafa with mirthful simplicity of his
resources and anxieties in the war. The relation was perhaps too
beautiful to last; it was perhaps imposs